Cornelis Joan Simons

Cornelis Joan Simons
16th Governor of Dutch Ceylon
In office
11 May 1703 – 22 November 1707
Preceded by Gerrit de Heere
Succeeded by Hendrik Becker

Cornelis Joan Simons or Cornelis Jan Simonsz (ca. 1660 -1727) was Governor of Dutch Ceylon from 11 May 1703 until 22 November 1707. [1]

Simons' birth year is unknown, but he is though to be born in Utrecht. He studied law and in 1683 married Agnes Anna Emilius. Hired by the Dutch East India Company, Simons sailed from Amsterdam on 20 May 1690 to arrive at Cape Town 3 October 1690 where the next week he was installed as independent "fiskaal" (treasurer) of the Political Council. He left the cape in November 1694 to become treasurer of Dutch Coromandel on the Indian southeast coast. In 1701 he left from there for Batavia on Java where he is installed as vice-president of the Council of Justice. Two years later he was elected Governor of Ceylon and returned to the Indian subcontinent.[2]

Simons instructed and directed the dissava of Jaffnapatnam (Claes Isaaksz) to codify the Thesavalamai ("The Customs of the Land"), which was finished in 1707 and to this day applies to most Tamils in northern Sri Lanka. Simons also initiated building the Leper Hospital in Hendala in the Gampaha District, which was finished in 1708 under his successor Becker.[3]

After his governorship he remained extraordinary member of the Raad van Indië and in 1708 he has the title Commissary of the Cape of Good Hope. He left that year from Ceylon via the Cape to the Dutch Republic as admiral of a returning fleet of 18 ships, carrying a cargo with an estimated value of 5 million guilders. He re-established himself in the city of Utrecht, where he died in 1727.[2][4]

References

  1. ↑ Cahoon, Ben. "Dutch Governors". Worldstatesmen. Retrieved 1 March 2013.
  2. 1 2 Footnote 1 and Footnote 3 with Resolutions of the Council of Policy of Cape of Good Hope of September 1720 and February 1731
  3. ↑ The story of Hendala, Journal of the Dutch Burgher Union of Ceylon, Vol. XXXII No. 4, April 1943
  4. ↑ Mr Cornelis Johannes of Jan Simonsz in Ceylon tijdens het Nederlandsch bestuur onder de Oost-Indische Compagnie van 1656 tot en met mei 1796 (Deel twee), Algemeen Nederlandsch familieblad, Volume 12, pp 237-248
Government offices
Preceded by
Gerrit de Heere		 Governor of Dutch Ceylon
1703-1707 		Succeeded by
Hendrik Becker
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